Osage orange timber

[edward johnson]

Can Osage orange be raised to have long straight trunks?  Or is it only good for bow making?  Would be nice to grow a patch for timber.  And blocks for bows or carving.  Is there good money in it?

[YellowHammer]

I don't know about raising it.  

However, here in North Alabama and Southern Tenn, Osage will grow surprisingly large and relatively straight, enough for me to sell it as lumber.  I have a couple boards in the showroom right now that are maybe 12 inch wide and 8 feet long.  It does have a lot of stress in it so has issues with that, but as far as it growing large enough for specialty lumber sales, yes, it does, in the right soil and climate.

I wouldn't say there is "good money" in it, especially to bow makers, they are the most persnickety buyers I've ever seen, hand sorting through a pallet of osage to find the perfect one.  I would starve if I was selling only to them.  Most of my osage goes to people who are hand tool makers and novelty pieces.  One issue with it is that although it is yellow, it will age to a brown so businesses who make cutting boards, chess boards, where they want yellow highlights and trim, stuff like that, don't really use it much because of it turning brown over time.  When they want yellow wood, they want wood that will stay yellow, and that's why I stock Yellowheart and Movingue.

[Magicman]

 

 I have a beautiful Osage pen that was made for me by FF member @Radar67 in 2013.



That pen today has a rich brown color.  It goes to Church with me every Sunday.

[busenitzcww]

Here in Kansas we have "hedgerows" which were planted on mile or half mile lines to help combat the dust bowls of the 30's so there is quite a bit of it but it's hard to find nice straight grain pieces. It also seems like they often get large internal cracks/voids after the get above 16" diameter. As was said the yellow quickly fades especially with an oil finish. I do still sell a bit but mostly as a novelty wood. It makes great firewood and hedgepost or anything else that needs to be rot resistant!

[Will_Johnson]

I have a couple of pieces of furniture in my house made from hedge. My wife freaked when they first arrived because they were bright yellow. But they mellowed quite fast to a deep mahogany color. 

And they are tough as nails. If memory serves, hedge is something like 4 times more dense than oak. One is a coffee table and both my daughters used to stand on it in the morning before school to check their outfits in a big mirror on our living room wall. You'd never know.

Which says a lot about the toughness of the wood and the (lack of) toughness of my parenting.

[beenthere]

Will
Not four times more dense.. white oak oak is around 47 lb/cuft and osage orange is around 57 lb/cuft. But indeed is denser.

Janka hardness is 2620 lbs of force for osage orange and 1360 for white oak. So about twice as hard.

[doc henderson]

yes, there is tons here.  the nasty stuff can make turnings like turkey calls ect.  mills nice and finish can be as simple as wax as it sands very smooth.  It is great firewood, making coals, and good yields making lump charcoal   the BTU comparison is 32 million BTYs per cord compared to about 25 million for oak, 18 for cottonwood, depending on the species, and this relates to the density.  grown in a grove it still gets branchy unlike softwoods.  You are lucky to get branches relatively straight to make posts.  as mentioned very rot resistant.  So, mill what you can and burn the rest for heat.  



 

 

 

 

[Brad_bb]

A few years ago I was posting on here all the Osage I was cutting for timberframe live edge braces.  They lend themselves well to that purpose because they have a nice natural curve and often beautiful live edge, they are super strong(way stronger than necessary), and I love the rich brown color they turn.  I get it in 6-9 foot pieces usually.  The only downside is it's hard wood, and a little harder to cut the joinery, but made easier with power tools.  

Osage is usually planted in hedge rows along fields, so naturally it competes for light and bends towards the field.  That's why they usually have a curve.  They can be straighter in the woods or in the middle of a dense hedge row.  They also usually have multiple stems in a hedge row, and they compete with each other, making them reach for light and curve to get there.

I've seen some massive trunks in IL, 4-5' in diameter.  I figure those must have been some of the first planted when the land was settled.  The rings are really small, so must have taken 200years or better to get that big.  It would be a big job cutting those though, and probably a lot of bark inclusions.  Sometimes osage stems are hollow or going that direction.  I prefer logs in the 8-16" range for my use.  
Osage braces for the barn

[edward johnson]

That's what I was hoping to figure.  Slightly crowd them.  Pack them in tight and trim the lower branches.  See if they grow straight.

[Will_Johnson]

Will
Not four times more dense.. white oak oak is around 47 lb/cuft and osage orange is around 57 lb/cuft. But indeed is denser.

Janka hardness is 2620 lbs of force for osage orange and 1360 for white oak. So about twice as hard.

Clearly my memory didn't serve lol. Not the first time and probably not the last.

[OzarkChris]

 

 I use Osage (Bois d'Arc) a lot for turning. Beautiful wood but you seriously need to work it while it's still a bit wet or it turns hard as cement. I've had some pieces that will turn darker orange but not fully brown. This picture of a salt/pepper mill is about 6 months post turning and really just got a deeper, more mellow orange rather than brown. I sold it a couple of months ago and haven't heard any complaints of it getting brown.

[Sod saw]

.


Around here, I have noticed that most of our Osage is smaller trunks.

Our Black Locust seems to be larger.

They both have a reputation of being rot resistance and very hard to the point of needing to drill holes before a nail is driven.

My question:  Which is more rot resistive, if any?


.

[Brad_bb]

Well you could plant Osage, but I doubt you could harvest it in your lifetime.  It's slow growing. Maybe your grandkids could harvest some, or their kids.

[Digger Don]

Which is more rot resistive, if any?

I'm a long way from an expert (former drip, under pressure) but I once heard that Osage Orange would outlast the hole you put it in.

[MDC_Forester]

What blades are you using to mill Osage Orange?  I tried with some stock TK blades and got nowhere fast.  I'm going to be sawing some in the next month and wondered if I should pick up something besides my WoodMaxx 7 degree blades I now use.

[doc henderson]

Like Mulberry it starts off yellow and oxidizes in sunlight, (uv) and turns brown.  I think for hard or frozen wood, you back off the aggressiveness of the hook ankle, like a 4 degree.

[doc henderson]

I made a bench out of Mulberry and left a block of wood on top.  It took months for the outline of that block to catch up so the top looked unform.  It left a light spot where it had been.

[customsawyer]

Like Mulberry it starts off yellow and oxidizes in sunlight, (uv) and turns brown.  I think for hard or frozen wood, you back off the aggressiveness of the hook ankle, like a 4 degree.

Doc, I believe your spell check got the better of you. I'm going out to the blade shop and see where this hook ankle is. Not sure if it will require corrective surgery, or just some time in a cast.

[aigheadish]

Before I knew what osage was, when I was still pretty new to my property, I saw a medium sized gnarly looking tree near the back field, that I thought was dead. I went out with the backhoe to find, yes some of it had died off but there was still a lot of it not dead. I expected to knock it over with the backhoe but found it'd knocked the backhoe over if I let it. Very tough, stringy, and would not come down like just about any other tree I encountered. So, it stands! It's neat looking but in a creepy kind of way.

[LeftFinger]

I use a 7 degree hook ankle (thanks Doc)  for cutting everything